April 4, 1968. I was in the first grade. Time has dimmed my memory but I can still see my mother entering my classroom, taking me by the hand and whisking me home. Later, I discovered Martin Luther King,...
Joseph’s Columns Archive
The Failing Promise of Public Education
We, the American public, hold it as an article of faith that those responsible for devising and implementing public policy have our best interests at heart. Our best minds are hard at work, striving to make the world a...
Sell-outs at the NAACP
For decades the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People fought the good fight against racial discrimination. The organization was instrumental in defeating Jim Crow and discrimination in the work-place; it led the charge in establishing voting rights...
Fed-Up With The Transportation Safety Administration
I arrived at the Los Angeles Airport more than an hour early. I had made good time on the highway. I wasn’t checking any bags, so with my boarding pass in hand I proceeded to the gate. I was...
Social Security Reform: The New Radicalism
There is, perhaps, no better testament to how far this nation has drifted from the principles of individual liberty, free markets, and private property than that those proponents of real reform of the Social Security system are now looked...
GOP Resurgence: What’s a Cynic to Do?
While listening to music on my I-phone, I began to contemplate the upcoming mid-term elections. The rock band, The Who sang: “I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution/Take a bow for the new revolution/Smile and grin at the...
Humorless Muslims and Annoying Christians
I am curious to see what happens when President Obama invites Molly Norris to the White House for a beer. Oh, Wait. Molly Norris can’t go to the White House for beer because Molly Norris no longer exists; any...
The Absurdity of the Racialist Playbook
The absurdity of race continues to rear its ugly head and once again, the succubus appears in Mississippi. The folks in the Magnolia state can’t seem to get it right on race even when they use the liberal racialist...
Is America Only for White People?
Is America only for white people? The question stuck in my mind following yet another e-mail exchange with a friend of mine, regarding my conservatism. For this particular gentleman, being black in America is at odds with conservatism. As...
America: Still Talking About Race
According to the website CNN.com, some of the criticism of first lady Michelle Obama is driven by partisan politics. However, “others say the attacks are rooted in white resentment of the “uppity Negro.” Two things quickly come to mind....
Tolerance and the Ground Zero Mosque
I am fascinated that the same people who have been able to find a Constitutional right to government control of education, healthcare, and the energy industry are unable to divine from that same document any rational basis for the...
Clarity and the New Black Panther Party
In its coverage of the Philadelphia voter intimidation case, conservative media has unfortunately chosen sensationalism over clarity. There are layers to this case to be explored that might highlight the idealism of the right and expose the pessimism of...
Who Is John Locke?
I am willing to wager my house that not one of my son’s seventh-grade classmates could identify John Locke in a photo. I am then willing to let that wager ride on another gamble that less than one percent...
Independence and the Right to Private Property
The right to private property was one of the central issues involved in the American Revolution. The colonists’ cries of “taxation without representation” were but protests of what they saw as an unjust taking of private property. The Declaration...
